de wa4chq wa4chq wa4chq/qrp k>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>"If Stevie Ray Vaughan was a ham, he'd be
pounding
brass on a homebrew, qrp transceiver..."

I have been doing the qrp "thang" since
late
November, 1994. At that time, I would "throttle back" my FT-101ee
to
around five watts or so. Prior to that, most of my cw
operating
was between30 and 100 watts. I
have always
been intrigued with home built radios, but was a little intimidated withschematics and parts procurement. In
the
back of my mind I kept seeing the article written by W7ZOI and K7TAU
about
"The Mountaineer-an Ultraportable CW Station". It was in an
August 1972
issue of QST. Boy did I want to do something like that. But
I
wasn't ready. Then one day, I took the soldering gun by
the
cool end and started to build. My first attempts were
crude.
The layout was messy and the hookup was sometimes a tangled mess.
But
it was a start into a very fascinating part of ham radio, very much
like
what I can only imagine the early days of wireless were like.
With
each project, I became more comfortable with laying out the parts,
etching
pc boards, getting parts, winding coils etc. What was
really
fascinating was I was learning about radio and was starting to use some
of
the theory I had memorized for upgrading to Advanced and Extra Class
Hamster.
Right now, I have qrp rigs for 40m, 30m and 20m--all from different
designers,
as well as homebrew test equipment for putting together my flea powered
radios.
My antenna is just a 33 foot piece of metal, set vertically and matched
by
a tuner. I would like to have a better radiator, but this is all
I can
manage where I live. I don't work much dx, but that's fine, I
never
did much of that chase anyway...I just enjoy making a contact with my
own
stuff!!

My favorite homebrew rig is my 40m
transceiver.
I found the schematic in a back issue of QST and thought it would be a
challenge
to build. The fellow that designed it is NN1G. I had read
many
comments about it in various qrp publications and it seemed like most
of the
folks that had built one really thought it had an excellent receiver
and
a very stable vfo. I got most of the parts for it from Dans Small
Parts.
I built the receiver first, using double sided copper clad board---the
top
acting as a ground and the bottom I had cut soldering islands with a
exacto
knife. Parts that weren't grounded, I drilled and countersunk the
top
and soldered to the pad on the bottom. Other than a few minor
wiring
mistakes, the receiver worked the first time, and was spot on
frequency!
I built the transmitter on another board, in the same manner as the
receiver.
It worked the first time also. I made a few mods to suit my
needs, and
added a Tick-1 keyer chip inside the xcvr cabinet to give me the option
to
use a keyer during contests.

The next rig in the family is my 30m dc transceiver. It is
truly
the "Heinz 57" of the three. The rx portion is from a Doug DeMaw
design
which I modified and the vfo is based on a Wes Hayward concept. I
made
the vfo for 5.05 mhz and used a doubler to get it up to 10.1 mhz.
The
transmitter is from many sources. The board were made in the same
fashion
as the 40m rig. Output is about 1.25 watts and it is housed
in
a larger cabinet than the 40m rig. The receiver works well (after
some
troubleshooting) and I have made many contacts with it. It draws
more
current than the 40m rig, and I don't think I'd use it in the
field.
There are very many parts in this rig....

The last rig is one designed by w6emt- the nw 80/20. I
chose
20m and only built the receiver portion. This was a pretty hefty
project,
although the 30m DC rig was pretty major too! Layout was the same
as
the others except this time I etched the islands. That was my
first
attempt at that process. I am happy to say that I am a lot better
at
it than at the time of this project! The radio worked OK but as
usual,
there was some tweaking needed in order for to work right. There
is
quite a loud hiss in the audio which according to some of the crew on
the
qrp-l, is caused by my 386 chip. I tried everything that I had
read
concerning the hiss problem for that particular device, but nothing
seemed
to work like I had hoped. Replacing with a quieter chip is the
answer.
The transmitter is the basic vxo circuit- power about 1 watt. I
have
made about 10 qso's and most of those were during a contest. In
all
honesty, 20m has never been a favorite with me, so I haven't really
spent
the time getting this rig to in a-1 shape. My 40m rig has spoiled
me,
and I kind of hoped everything worked like it! I think if I do
anything,
it will be to finish the transmitter section like it was meant to be,
and
not be rock bound as I am now...

This is a 40m vxo that I am bread boarding. I really
don't
need anything like this but its just fun knocking things
together.
Output is about 1 watt and the xtal swing is about 4 khz. I
may
build a vfo and delete the xtal and then build another receiver for
40m. to
go with it. Hey, that's what it's all about!!
The
first time I built a little oscillator like this, was back in
1996.
In fact, my real building career started from a simple circuit like
this....and
yes you can have many qso's with 1 watt.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<40m
vxo-revised

I decided to change the vxo around a
bit.
I wasn't really happy with the design. I added a couple of
chokes
in series and a capacitor in parallel to give more swing to the
xtal.
I now get about 8 khz. swing. Also added a keying
switch.
This now is more like the early vxo transmitters I built when I first
got
started. None of the schematics are my designs---they are made up
from
many plans I got from various publications. I still haven't
decided
what I am going to do with it....maybe a qrp rig for hiking or
camping.....

Revised
again

I tried hooking up the audio
portion
of the Pixie2 to the above circuit. I bypassed the keying switch
and
brought the voltage in as before with the vxo #1. I was able to
copy
some cw with it but it wasn't very loud. I tried different things
and
just couldn't get it to do what I wanted. That's when I got the
junk
box out and got the parts together for the Pixie2.
I found a few articles about it and decided to customize the original
design.
The result is what I call the Dixie Pixie. Power out is about
200mw
and xtal swing is about 5 khz. I have not tried working anybody
with
it yet, and since I am still experimenting with it, have not made
a
proper pc for it, nor have I put it in a proper cabinet.

Well, I decided to go back to the
original
Pixie2 design, with a few mods that I had found on the Internet.
I still
have not tried working anyone with it. Power out is pretty low
and
it would be a real challenge for me to work someone with the antenna
set-up
here on the Island. Below is the schematic and some
photos...sorry I
can't get better detail with my pictures.

I don't show it in the schematics
above, but
originally I used 2n2222's. Power out was pretty low. I
tried
replacing the "final" with other transistors I had used in other
oscillators
but that didn't improve things much. Then either I read about it
or
I just did it, but I replaced both of them with 3904's and what a
difference
it made. After that I cleaned the layout
up
and rebuilt it "free-style" (ugly sounds ugly and I like 'em to look
good)
and placed it in a small mint tin.

Well it has been revised again! But the best thing is I
finally
worked a few hams with the Dixie Pixie. On May 23, 2000 running
400mW,
I worked W1PID. Then on May 25, 2000 running 250mW, I worked K1QM
and
again, W1PID. I still have not got the offset to my liking, but
rubbering
the xtal during rx helped. Also, I am still getting bleed thru
from
SW broadcast stations. This has been a fun project. One
thing
to note is my Dixie Pixie is based on several Pixie's I have seen
in
various publications. I am having fun trying a little of this and
a
little of that from other designs. That is the beauty of
homebrewing!

One thing I forgot to mention was that with 9v I get 250 mW and with
12v I
can get 450mW.

I have been wanting
to
build something here lately but because of other things going on,
just
didn't find the time. I order parts for building the
SST-40, but
was not able to get the xtal's. Since then, I made another order
to
Mouser and the rest of the parts should be here soon. In the mean
time,
we had a break in the weather and I couldn't get the "building bug" out
of
my head. So yesterday, after a week of reviewing designs from my
reference
library, I decided on a DC receiver for 40m. It is based on the
Micromountaineer
from the April 2000 issue of QST (w7zoi) except I built a vfo for it
instead
of being rockbound. The vfo design uses diodes for tuning in
place
of the variable cap. The design is based on things I found in
Demaw's
W1FB's QRP and Design Notebooks. The front end (I think that is
what
you call it) is from a design from Monty, N5FC. Look at his
little
receiver on his web page. I had all of the parts
needed
in my junk box and even had the torroids already made up from a past
project.
After a few "hot" parts, causing a zener to fry, I started to receive
some
honest to goodness ham radio stuff.... Tuning is still pretty
sensitive,
but hopefully will be able to clear that up and maybe make up a nice
etched
board for it. Right now, it is pretty ugly looking. Sorry
about
the quality of the pictures. They aren't the greatest but
at
least you get the "picture". The schematic is down below.

At my work
bench,
I use a Micronta FET VOM, a Weller SP-23 soldering gun with a homebrew
heat
output adjustment and an Autek RF Analyst. I also have a homebrew
adjustable
power supply. The remainder of the test gear I use is
homebrew.
I have a SWR-PWR meter, a Audio oscilator and a RF probe.